Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her

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Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her

by Melanie Rehak (Goodreads Author)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 1,110 ratings · 227 reviews

A plucky �titian-haired” sleuth solved her first mystery in 1930. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties (when she was taken up with a vengeance by women’s libbers) to enter the pantheon of American girlhood. As beloved by girls today as she was by their grandmothers, Nancy Drew has both inspired and reflected the...more

Paperback, 314 pages

Published September 5th 2006 by Mariner Books (first published September 12th 2005)

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Nov 14, 2011 Macjest rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Absolutely fascinating read! I know that many of us got started with Nancy Drew before moving over to Trixie Belden. This book gives the whole history behind Nancy, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, the Dana Girls and a whole host of other books many of us grew up with.
Believe it or not, Nancy Drew and the above all started out as 50¢ pulp books. The early books were churned out as quickly as possible so that the author could earn $100-125 per book. (The author had to sign away their rights by...more

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Nov 22, 2012 Cormac Zoso rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having been far more a Nancy Drew fan when I was young than a fan of the Hardy Boys (being male everyone pushed Hardy Boys on me ... but really, I found them boring compared to that sparkling Nancy Drew lol), I always assumed that Carolyn Keene was the sole and loving author of all those mysteries and that she perhaps was writing them from overblown memories or wanted-fantasies from her own childhood with her friends. I stumbled upon this book on a discount table and snapped it up for a couple o...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Description: A plucky "titian-haired" sleuth solved her first mystery in 1930. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the Sixties (when she was taken up with a vengeance by women's libbers) to enter the pantheon of American girlhood. As beloved by girls today as she was by their grandmothers, Nancy Drew has both inspired and reflected the changes in her readers' lives. Now, in a narrative with all the vivid energy and page...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Elderberrywine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

The intriguing backstory of "Carolyn Keene" and her heroine begins with Edward Stratemeyer, creator of the ingenious Stratemeyer Syndicate. Full of inventive tales, and not enough time to write them, he came up with the solution of creating the characters with whom he populated his many series for juveniles, came up with the general outline for each book, and farmed them all out to selected writers to complete. The writers were to remain anonymous, and he often retooled the manuscripts considera...more The intriguing backstory of "Carolyn Keene" and her heroine begins with Edward Stratemeyer, creator of the ingenious Stratemeyer Syndicate. Full of inventive tales, and not enough time to write them, he came up with the solution of creating the characters with whom he populated his many series for juveniles, came up with the general outline for each book, and farmed them all out to selected writers to complete. The writers were to remain anonymous, and he often retooled the manuscripts considerably, so that each remained true to his vision. This was the recipe for success that gave us Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and the unforgettable Bomba the Jungle Boy, but he felt the lack of a heroine with which to lure in the feminine audience. Enter Nancy Drew.

The first three books were conceived as a "booster" set, to test the waters, and the first was on its way to the publishers, and he had just finished revising the third, when he died suddenly. His two daughters, Harriet and Edna, tried their best to find a buyer for the Syndicate and its very successful series, but it was 1933, and there were none. So Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, young upper class society matron, and to a lesser extent her sister, stepped into the world of publishing, which was very nearly unheard of at the time, and made the wise decision to use the young writer hired by their father for the first three books, Mildred Wirt. So it was Adams and Wirt who together launched Nancy Drew, one of the most successful and profitable literary franchises ever.

The relationship of the Stratemeyer sisters and Wirt was rocky and convoluted at times, but none of them ever took Nancy lightly, and by the '70's her feisty independence caused even feminists to take her to heart. Originals or revised versions, they are all still solid sellers, and dear to most of us who went through them like candy in our youth. Come to think of it, it's been awhile. Too long as a matter of fact. The Secret of the Old Clock, right?(less)

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Feb 23, 2010 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

At long last I discovered the truth behind Carolyn Keene, and all those rumors about her, like "Wasn't she a man? And didn't she write Hardy Boys as well, and a bunch of other series books with different pseudonyms?"

The brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and a host of other popular series books, were assigned to ghostwriters who wrote the complete ms. after getting plot outlines from Stratemeyer. He actually had a "writing factory" set up, because he had mor...more At long last I discovered the truth behind Carolyn Keene, and all those rumors about her, like "Wasn't she a man? And didn't she write Hardy Boys as well, and a bunch of other series books with different pseudonyms?"

The brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and a host of other popular series books, were assigned to ghostwriters who wrote the complete ms. after getting plot outlines from Stratemeyer. He actually had a "writing factory" set up, because he had more ideas and characters in his head than he could keep up with. So he advertised for writers, sent them outlines, edited their work so it matched his vision and standards, then sent the finished mss. off to Grosset & Dunlap, who published them.

Got all that? No wonder we were all confused by a simple question like "who wrote Nancy Drew?"

Grosset & Dunlap paid royalties to Stratemeyer who owned all the rights to all the series books. The ghostwriters got around $100 per book. During the Depression, the ghostwriter for Nancy Drew, Mildred Wirt, was cut to $85, even though sales continued as ever.

Stratemeyer had established a company called Stratemeyer Syndicate, that he was involved with on every level. He's the one who hired Mildred Wirt. She actually developed the initial character of Nancy Drew as clever, quick, sometimes a bit smart-alecky, with courage that exceeded all her other traits. Stratemeyer died suddenly before the first Nancy Drew hit the stores, and his two daughters took over the Syndicate.

Unable to sell it, they had no choice but to learn how to run it themselves. Mildred Wirt continued as ghostwriter for Nancy Drew, which became their bestselling series book ever. It was the two sisters who cut her pay during the Depression and ceaseed giving bonuses to all the authors--er--ghostwriters. Finally, after years of Nancy Drew outselling everything else, they stopped sending Mildred outlines and Harriet Strotemeyer took over the writing herself.

Harriet claimed to her dying day that she was the true Carolyn Keene, the creator of Nancy Drew. None of the ghostwriters were ever supposed to talk about their work. The Stratemeyer sisters viewed them as little more than secretarial assistants. The writer's job was to take the outlines, fill it all in, send it in for editing, and then fix problems.

The Strotemeyer Syndicate was hugely successful in its time, but I can't imagine this business plan working today. None of the ghostwriters ever received a cent of royalties. Mildred Wirt managed to finagle a raise back up to $100 after the Depression, and then got one $1000 bonus at Christmas, right before being axed.

The author, Melanie Rehak, writes all this against the backdrop of women's rights issues. Personally, I didn't see the two Stratemeyer sisters as any kind of women's rights pioneers running this company in a man's world, bla bla bla. I saw them as money grubbing, self-centered women, raised in wealth and doing whatever they could to make sure it continued. I'm not sure if that was the author's intent or not, but it's how they came across to me.

Mildred Wirt was the real heroine in this story. Again, I don't know if that was Rehak's intention or not, because she kept going back to women's rights and the feminist movement. What fascinated me the most about this whole story was the business model that Edward Stratemeyer established, and that his daughters somehow managed to maintain until Harriet died about 50 years after her father.

Oh, and finally discovering the real story behind Carolyn Keene. (less)

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Jan 17, 2009 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2009

"Grab your magnifying glass, because this is a mystery story." That's the first sentence of the book, and it was all it took to convince me that this book was absolutely something I'd want to read. For the most part, the book didn't quite live up to this particular promise. It's not a mystery at all.

But it turned out to be something even better. Not just a history of the Nancy Drew stories and their place in our culture, but also the story of women in the twentieth century. Everything from the W...more

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May 18, 2009 Tom Franklin rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting look at the lives of the two women most responsible for the Nancy Drew books, as well as the father of one who created the character and ran the writing syndicate behind the Drew series (as well as The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Rover Boys and many others).

The Stratemeyer Syndicate wrote brief outlines for the plots of the books and then bought the manuscripts outright from their writers. The books were then published under pseudonyms (and via contracts) that k...more An interesting look at the lives of the two women most responsible for the Nancy Drew books, as well as the father of one who created the character and ran the writing syndicate behind the Drew series (as well as The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Rover Boys and many others).

The Stratemeyer Syndicate wrote brief outlines for the plots of the books and then bought the manuscripts outright from their writers. The books were then published under pseudonyms (and via contracts) that kept the real authors completely hidden from the public's view.

Rehak's book first charts the life of Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, through his rise in the publishing industry at the turn of the century. The majority of the book, however, follows the lives of Stratemeyer's eldest daughter, Harriet, and the principle author of the Nancy Drew books, Mildred Augustine.

Both women were exceptional people and it's clear Rehak has considerable admiration for both. In the early 1910s and 1920s the two women were college educated, pushing themselves into the world of work (and, therefore, the world of men) and outside of society's norms.

The story of Nancy Drew's development follows the lives of these two women. Mildred's life was rarely easy and often fiercely difficult; Harriet took control of the Syndicate after her father's death and became one of the few women heading a major company in America during the Great Depression.

While Edward, then Harriet, wrote the outlines of the Nancy Drew books and then did the final edits of the completed manuscripts, it's clear that Mildred was the true driving force behind Nancy. It was Mildred who brought the character of Nancy to life and made her one of the most beloved characters in literature.

As Nancy's popularity grew from generation to generation its not surprising that the 'ownership' of Nancy Drew would come into question. Harriet eventually took over the writing of the books (as a cost-savings measure) and then laid claim to being Carolyn Keene, conveniently leaving out Mildred's contribution as the writer of the first 20+ books.

The end of the book explores the cultural implications of Nancy Drew and her emergence as an icon of the feminist movement. As well, it details the courtroom drama of the lawsuit that brought Harriet and Mildred's roles as authors of the Nancy books.

As a reader of those first 20+ Nancy Drew books I am now a big fan of Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, a woman who wrote manuscript after manuscript to keep herself and her family going through the Depression, through illness and through times that would make a lesser person break down and not get up again. For me, Mildred is the real hero of this book and she deserves to be remembered and appreciated.(less)

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Jun 02, 2009 Tori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

4.5 stars. I'm not sure why I can't give it 5 stars......, because I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Maybe part of it's because the title annoys me...... the "women" who created her.....when the book relates the fact that a man was the one who came up with the original idea!
I'm not big on non-fiction usually - but this story was so enthralling! Like many others, I loved Nancy Drew as a child, and was so interested to read about her history. I did not realize the controversy that surrounded her aut...more

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Sara Nancy Drew and the Man/People Who Created Her just doesn't have the same ring to it!
Jun 02, 2009 10:02am

Liz I may have to read this one. I LOVED Nancy Drew books, and wanted to be just like her when I grew up. I still think about her when I put my foot on th...more
Jun 03, 2009 05:09pm

Sheryl Tribble Speaking as an author who has co-written a few things, I think of the people who put flesh on the outline as the "creators". Nancy was Edward Strateme...more
Mar 25, 2013 08:07am

Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Rehak glows as a biographer of the players behind the creation of the mythic girl detective, exploring Adams's background as a Wellesley graduate at a time when few girls completed high school and her subsequent transformation from housewife to businesswoman after inheriting her father's publishing company. With her own sleuthing, Rehak pieces together the working relationship between Benson and Adams from their business letters and dealings. As a historian, however__especially of the emerging f

...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Wileyacez rated it 4 of 5 stars

My Nancy Drew phase did not last long, but it was a very happy time. For Christmas and birthdays, I would always ask for, and get, another book in the series. My best friend and I tried to make sure that we did not overlap titles, so that we could share. As soon as we could after the holidays, we were holed up in our bedrooms reading away on our new treasures.

Ms. Rehak did an excellent job of telling the history of not only Nancy Drew, but also that of series books for children, which continue t...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Rachael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of feminism, women's college students, Nancy Drew fans

Recommended to Rachael by: http://evillibrariansupervillain.wordpress.com/

When I was young my grandma had an entire bookshelf of Bobbsey twins, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew books. And not just series novels, the ORIGINAL series novels. So I got the pleasure of reading the classic, original Nancy Drews growing up. So it was a trill that this novel also tied in the histories of all my favorite childhood series, not my favorite girl detective.

I have to admit I was annoyed while reading the first 115 pages for a few reasons. First of, though it built the foundation for Nanc...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Marfita rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nancy Drew lovers everywhere

Shelves: mysteries, children-s

Wha-at? You mean there was no Carolyn Keene? As a child I devoured the Nancy Drew books, like most girls, re-reading them and demanding more (to my mother's horror - she wanted me to go to a library and get them, but how could you read and re-read as I did with books if they weren't right there on your shelf? I have solved this problem in adulthood by working in libraries!). I remember hearing that there was a woman behind them, or maybe a man who started it and his wife (turned out to be his da...more Wha-at? You mean there was no Carolyn Keene? As a child I devoured the Nancy Drew books, like most girls, re-reading them and demanding more (to my mother's horror - she wanted me to go to a library and get them, but how could you read and re-read as I did with books if they weren't right there on your shelf? I have solved this problem in adulthood by working in libraries!). I remember hearing that there was a woman behind them, or maybe a man who started it and his wife (turned out to be his daughter) who ground them out under the name of Keene. After that I lost track of the whos and wheres and now have learned that there was a hard-writing, tough woman reporter in the midwest who did the fleshing out of book outlines provided. The syndicate then edited them or suggested edits.
This book is certainly more than one would want to know about the making of Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and other older series books. I guess you could then call it "thorough." It's disheartening to read about family squabbles over money when your associations with these books hearken to mythologies like the Easter Bunny. Harriet's sister Edna married and bowed out of the day-to-day running of the syndicate, but managed to pinch pennies from a distance. Having had a sister, I can just imagine ...
I was also right in preferring the oldest versions, the blue books with the orange print on the outside. Later editions of Nancy Drew were dumbed down, eviscerated for political correctness, and even later reduced to advertising for the shallowest of consumerism. The love of the oldest versions led me to historical fiction and period mysteries. I now prefer a little more distance in my reading. Also, the educational bits in the books (which I actually noticed as a child reader and appreciated, "Oh! I'm learning something, too!") were intentional insertions.
Disdain for series literature started early and still exists, but the nay-sayers still don't learn the lesson: kids enjoy reading them, want to read them, and they actually help young readers develop the fluidity of reading, which prepares kids for the meatier stuff they will also have to read. Whether they go on to enjoy more serious "litticher" later is up to them, but they will already be hooked on the printed word.
The book climaxes in a courtroom smack-down (if the meeting of the two long-separated, elderly ladies can be so described) when the original writer (Mildred Wirt Benson) and the Stratemeyer Syndicate head (Harriet Stratemeyer Adams) face off while Harriet attempts to defend her split from Grosset and Dunlap. They each believed themselves to be the originator, the writer of the Nancy Drew stories. Harriet went so far as to refer to Nancy as her daughter. Grosset and Dunlap had stupidly mined the Syndicate's catalog and resisted sharing even a little bit more of the gold with the Syndicate. Harriet left them for a better deal with Simon & Schuster (who virtually raped and pillaged the Nancy Drew franchise after Harriet's death, relentlessly launching watered-down series after watered-down series and never achieved the same 50 year success of the originals).
The "original" Nancy Drew series (as well as Hardy Boys) have been published in facsimile form by Applewood Books, and Good on 'em!
Long live the Nancy Drew in all of us, the real one, the one that captured our hearts in our youth, the time when our hearts were there for the taking. (less)

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Aug 26, 2007 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Nancy Drew (obviously)

A bit confusing at the beginning as the author skips around among the lives of three women (two of whom played an integral role in the creation and continuation of Nancy Drew)--the Stratemeyer sisters, Edna and Harriet, and Mildred Augustine. More than adequately covers the changes and developments of Nancy Drew's character as well as the series overall from its inception in the 1930's up to the present-day version.

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Jan 10, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm pretty sure I was given this book as kind of a joke because my friends and I have a bit of an obsession with the Nancy Drew computer games (which are fabulous, fyi). Sadly, this history of Nancy Drew and her creators does not mention her computer game legacy, but it does give a pretty good discussion of Nancy's cultural impact and importance, and why so many girls love her so very much. After all, not every books series lasts 50+ years. It was really interesting to learn about the women (and...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

I liked the parts of this book that focused more on the story of the Nancy Drews--how she was created, who the writers were, and her evolution from the 30s through today. I would have liked to read more about Mildred Wirt, the writer of the first Drew volumes. She seemed like a woman well ahead of her time, who was able to balance a writing career with motherhood and caring for her ill husband. She had so much spirit and courage.

I felt that the book spent too much time focusing on the mundane de...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Jules rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved Nancy Drew when I was a kid. The 1980's versions that filled bookstore shelves were okay, but I really fell for the old-fashioned versions liberated from a closet in my grandparents' house. Antiquated vocabulary, prim clothing, and melodramatic mysteries were a peek into my mother's childhood that I gladly delved into during every visit. Like many other girls, I have no doubt, I pictured myself as Nancy, solving crimes and getting the bad guy in the end.

This book covers the history of t...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

I devoured Nancy Drew books when I was younger. I'll never forget library days in middle school, when we were allowed to take out a book for the month; I always chose a Nancy Drew mystery.

While Rehak's findings on Nancy's origin and the backstory of her "author", Carolyn Keene (a pen name for multiple authors), were interesting, Mildred's and Harriet's life stories weren't so interesting that they needed to be recounted in such detail.

I also found the later trials involving the rights to Carolyn...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, library, history, culture, biography, reviewed

Fascinating read.

As a kid, I found the Hardy Boys more interesting, and couldn't stand Nancy Drew--perhaps because my first of her books was on of the Nancy Drew Notebooks, which, according to this book, were written to make her more 'girly-girly': boy and makeup obsessed.

But because I knew the two series were connected, I was willing to give the history a chance, and they did bring up a bit about the Hardy Boys and Edward Stratemeyer (who frankly seemed more interesting than the pages devoted...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, non-fiction

Fantastic read for someone who loved Nancy Drew at some point in the in their life, and who among us didn't? The author does an amazing job of synthesizing information and presenting it in an interesting and readable format. I found myself totally enraptured by the story and fell in love with the two women who wrote the original Nancy Drew books. (I was surprised to learn that The Nancy Drew books I read in the 1960s were most certainly not the originals.) The book is more than anything else a s...more

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May 08, 2013 Diane Heath rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting look at the development of the Stratemyer Syndicate which developed the Hardy Boys,Tom Swift and Nancy Drew books among others. This book specifically looks at Harriet Stratemyer Adams and Mildred Wirt Benson who were the two most identified as Carolyn Keene. Mildred being the first ghost writer for the syndicate responsible for Nancy Drew and Dana Girls. Harriet being the female CEO of the syndicate after the death of her father. The ongoing popularity of Nancy Drew in l...more

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May 12, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nancy Drew fans, feminists

Shelves: adult

This is not exactly what I expected, but it was still a very interesting read. As a fan of Nancy Drew almost my whole life, and an aspiring writer, I was horrified to discover several years ago that the Caroline Keene that I had always admired was actually a pen-name for a corporation of ghost writers. I was desperate to discover how a series that I had such fond memories of could be created by something that I hated so much, and this book definitely explains it all. It focuses in on the two wri...more

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Jul 20, 2008 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

I just finished this and it was really interesting. In the course of talking about the birth of Nancy Drew, it also covered the history of children's publishing and women's history.

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Jan 18, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Growing up, I loved Nancy Drew. But I never understood the sometimes-contradictory meeting of the minds that gave her such power in every little girl's imagination. A fun and fast examination of the lives of the three people who gave Nancy her feistiness, took it away and made sure she stayed in the national consciousness, Girl Sleuth does make some general assumptions about the women's movement without using more than just a pop culture icon to back them up. But that's fine when the author clea...more

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May 05, 2009 Kristin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This book is a must read for any woman who grew up reading Nancy Drew. Most people know that Carolyn Keene was not a real person but rather that the books were written by a publishing company. Growing up, I always pictured a roomful of people sitting around a table, collaborating. This wasn't quite the case however. The publishers hired ghost writers to write the books. Almost all of the books were wriiten by one of two women: original author and journalist Mildred Wirt Benson and the daughter o...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Irene rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, pop-culture

If you were a child with a "lights out" time and had to use a flashlight to keep reading Nancy Drew's adventures, then I suspect you will immensely enjoy reading this history of how she was created and how she morphed over the years. This book focuses mostly on the earlier days of the two women who wrote this series. I got a very clear picture of their lives and how decades worth of events shaped their writing. I also found some of the tidbits about the publishing world and how it has changed to...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nostalgic Nancy Drew Fans

Shelves: bibliophile, writers, women

This writing in this book probably warrants 4 stars, but I also love the subject manner so it is a 5 star for me. I cannot recall the number of times I read all of the Nancy Drew Mysteries as I child and about the Nancy Drew Franchise was both entertaining and informative. I found the breakthrough of women writers, or lack thereof has led me to reading more about this era. I thought there was Caroline Keene in a lovely writing room, creating the fabulous and daring mysteries of diaries, old cloc...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Susan by: Evalyn

Shelves: 2011-reads

This is the story behind the creators of the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins and Dana Girls series. Although I didn't read the Hardy Boys, I spent many happy hours with the Bobbsey Twins,Nancy Drew and my favorite, the Dana Girls, as a child. Little did I know that Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym for a group of writers. I came to admire one of the authors, Mildred Wirt Benson, greatly through the course of the book. I would probably have given this 3.5 stars, but the beginning drags a bit....more

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Feb 24, 2010 Lesley rated it 4 of 5 stars

WOW~ the real story behind the mystery that is Nancy Drew. I never knew that there was no real writer by the name of Carolyn Keene, and that the creation of Nancy involved many people. This may be the only Nancy Drew story where Nancy takes a back seat (in her blue roadster, of course) to the creators of her and her adventures. The real treasure here is the history of juvenile fiction and those who wrote the books, and a very good anthology of the history of the American woman. You know who woul...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, random-histories, franklin-library

A pop-culture history long overdue. Rehak masterfully traces the series' evolution to match the changing contemporary social mores and values. This aspect of the book is fascinating and intelligent. The issues of authorship are a little confusing, and the constant harping on the series' connections to feminism got a little tiresome, since the links were, at times, tenuous, but the majority of the time, "Girl Sleuth" succeeds as shrewd cultural commentary, a unique backstage look at a little-know...more

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Aug 08, 2009 Rosalia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, biography, 2009

This book about the woman who created Nancy Drew really helps the reader appreciate how truly ahead of her time Nancy Drew actually was. It gives the history of the two woman behind Nancy Drew, Mildred Wirt Benson and Harriet Stratermyer Adams. Harriet was most likely the first female C.E.O. and Mildred was a female pilot, journalist and writer of not only tons of books for the syndicate besides Nancy Drews but several of her own series. Anyone who has ever picked up a Nancy Drew and loved it, w...more

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